1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the ink cartridge of a jet printer, and particularly to an ink-refilling unit for ink cartridge of a jet printer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional jet printer, the ink is loaded in a cartridge, and the ink jetted on the printing paper is controlled with a sprayer; when ink in the cartridge is used up, the cartridge has to be replaced for further printing operation; however, the ink cartridge supplied by the original manufacturer is considerably expensive, i.e., a user to print a lot of papers will spend a lot of money.
In the conventional ink cartridge of a jet printer, the ink chamber of the ink cartridge is usually loaded with an equalization air bladder or a piece of sponge for soaking and supplying ink. The ink cartridge supplied by the original manufacturer usually has an equal pressure in the ink chamber during the automatic manufacturing process, and there will be no leak during printing operation.
In the conventional ink cartridge loaded with a sponge, an empty ink cartridge can be replenished by sealing and closing the end opening of the output port by means of a glue paper; then, a center through hole on lid of the top surface of the ink cartridge is sealed with a membrane; a syringe is sucked with a suitable amount of ink. A slender hollow needle is used to stab through the membrane on the through hole, and to the most lower portion of the storage chamber so as to inject ink in the storage chamber; however, the sponge in the storage chamber contains a great amount of bubbles, and the ink injected is unable to exhaust the air therein; as a result, the ink injected in is limited. Since there is a mesh furnished between the storage chamber and the second chamber, if air in the second chamber is unable to exhaust, the ink in the storage chamber will be unable to enter the second chamber via the mesh, and the ink will be unable to flow into the spraying chamber.
When the ink cartridge on a printer fails to print continuously, the major cause is that the sprayer in the printing head is in short supply of ink, i.e., lack of sufficient ink flowing through the passage defined by the bearing member; in other words, if too much air enters the second chamber in the printing head, such air would enter the storage chamber of the sprayer to cause interruption of ink, i.e., having no ink to spray out; in the event of no ink to spray out of the sprayer for a considerable time, the sprayer might be burned out.
In the former application Ser. No. 09/328,378, xe2x80x9cAn apparatus for the ink cartridge of a jet printerxe2x80x9d of the applicant, which mainly comprises an ink-storage container and a cylinder; the ink-storage container has a cylindrical body portion, of which the bottle mouth is furnished with a retaining ring and screw threads to be connected with a piston ring and a threaded cap respectively so as to store ink; one end of the cylindrical body portion is furnished with an outer body portion having a large diameter; the cylindrical body portion and the inner cylinder of the cylinder are assembled together; the piston ring of the bottle mouth is in close contact with the inner cylinder; the front end of the sealed surface of the cylinder is furnished with a tapered ink straw to be plugged and connected with a through hole of the ink cartridge; hold the outer surface of the cylinder, and then the thumb pushes the shoulder portion of the ink-storage container upwards so as to generate a negative pressure for replenishing ink into the ink cartridge.
The prime feature of the present invention is to provide an improvement to an application of xe2x80x9cAn apparatus for the ink cartridge of a jet printerxe2x80x9d, Ser. No. 09/328,378; the ink is to be stored in a separate ink cylinder, of which the upper end has a leak-proof ring to be connected with a cylinder body of a vacuum cylinder. When refilling the ink cartridge, the filling nozzle should be connected with the filling hole of the ink cartridge; two fingers of one hand press on the finger-press plate, while the other hand holds the outer surface of the vacuum cylinder to pull upwards so as to have the inside of the refilling unit create a vacuum; then, the air bubbles in the ink sponge of the ink cartridge will be sucked out, and the negative pressure in the ink cartridge will cause ink to be filled therein.
Another feature of the present invention is that a leak-proof ring is furnished between the ink cartridge and the vacuum cylinder, and the center of the leak-proof ring has a through hole. The post hole of the vacuum cylinder mounted on the ink cartridge is connected with the leak-proof ring closely. When the vacuum cylinder is pulled upwards, the inside of the vacuum cylinder will create a vacuum so as to have air in the ink cartridge exhausted; and to have ink filled therein.
Still another feature of the present invention is that a retaining ring is furnished on the upper end of the cylinder body of the ink cylinder, and it is to be connected with a leak-proof ring. The outer surface of the ink cylinder is provided with a plurality of rib-like plates, which can prevent the vacuum cylinder from bias moving upon being pulled over the ink cylinder.
A further feature of the present invention is that the lower end of the ink cylinder is furnished with a finger-press plate, which can be pressed with two fingers. The vacuum cylinder mounted over the ink cylinder can be grasped with hand to pull upwards so as to create a vacuum in the vacuum cylinder. The lower end of the vacuum cylinder has a limit ring to prevent the vacuum cylinder from being pulled off the ink cylinder unintentionally.
A still further feature of the present invention is that the bottom side of the finger-press plate has a cylindrical part with two symmetrical lugs; the finger-press plate may be pressed first to have the cylindrical part pass through the connection hole of the protection box; then, let the lugs mount to the retaining groove of the protection box; the open space of the other end of the protection box is connected with the ink cartridge so as to have the ink cartridge had a safe refilling operation.
Yet another feature of the present invention is that the post hole in the vacuum cylinder has a short post; when the refilling unit is not in use, the short post is plugged into the through hole of the leak-proof ring on the upper end of the ink cylinder so as to have ink stored and sealed in the inner cylinder of the ink cylinder.
Yet still another feature of the present invention is that the center of the short post in the vacuum cylinder has a post hole, which is normally closed with a hole plug to prevent ink from leaking. After refilling operation, the hole plug can be pulled out by pulling a pull plate, and then the post hole is used as a refilling hole so as to have the ink in an ink bottle filled into the ink cylinder; the refilling unit can be used repeatedly.